Presenter : Hasara Amaraarachchi

Type: Oral

In this study, an e-learning application based on geo-enabled quizzes is designed and implemented considering the local ordinary level school curriculum for History and Geography. In local history syllabus, the amount of information to explore is considerably large while students’ interest is poor. Paper maps are a standard tool used in learning history and geography but knowledge of map marking is one area mainly students’ find difficult in examinations. This application is intended to motivate and assist students to learn geography and history via interactive web app with maps. Based on learning theories on motivation, questions for different level of knowledge is designed and randomized quiz generation based on them are implemented. Quizzes consist of both MCQ and map marking questions to cover whole syllabus. MCQs are text or image based while map marking questions use a web-GIS approach and let students mark and verify locations of historical events or geographical features. They are transferred to point, line or polygon matching logic so that the features marked by a student are checked for the correctness by the system. For an example, location of a historic event can be marked on a web map interface as an answer for a question. Quiz results provide more details about the topic so students can learn further. MapServer with postgreSQL/PostGIS and Openlayers as the map viewer is used. OSM data is extracted and used when data is available and other data are created with QGIS. The question bank contains more than 400 questions derived covering the curriculum and the system is implemented with English and Sinhala language. System is verified with the support of school teachers and kids.

Keywords : e-learning, History, Map marking tools, MapServer, Quiz based system